I know you from once upon a dream
by mmusicofmysoul
Summary: (Cursed!Red Swan AU) In a world where there are no happily ever afters, Emma and Ruby feel a bond that brings them together, a connection difficult to conceal. Memories from a time – a long time ago, in the Enchanted Forest, where the princess of Misthaven and her she-wolf maid used to love each other in their secret little moments until the Evil Queen's Dark Curse took them away.


**Anonymous asked:** _"If you're taking prompts could I request the Red Swan cursed AU for that RS-once upon a dream edit you made time ago? I'd love it, we need more ouat femslash! thanks"_

* * *

It was the first time she saw her at the eyes at dinner, she felt it. Both of them could feel it, she was sure – it was impossible not to… She didn't do anything, what could have she said, anyway?

The girl – woman – came to her, settling her order on the bar. Her blue eyes – framed by that black eye-liner – didn't abandon her as she drank her cocoa, it felt like they wanted to penetrate her soul – or some cheesy line around those words.

But neither of them said a word. The brunette came back to work after sending a last look to her.

Emma realized her heart had never beaten so fast. She didn't get to know her name.

.

"Who are you?"

The girl standing in front of her at her rooms with a red hood – she couldn't be much older than her, the princess thought – bit her lip and placed a lock of black hair behind her ear. "People in the castle call me Red, Your Majesty. The King and Queen sent me to your quarters because they said you needed help with your hair… They also said they would send a maid to clean your sheets and make your bed… But I can go if you please –"

"'Tis fine. And is 'Your Highness' – only mama and papa are Their Majesties. I'm Emma." She took Red's hand for her to accompany her to the mirror and take the brush as she took her sit. "Is nice to see more girls in the castle – I never have someone to play with – Will you play with me, won't you, Red?"

She never answered. That morning, Red's only action was to make the princess ready for her day until the maids came and she could go back to the kitchens, where she worked.

The princess took it as a personal goal – to make her new maid talk to her. She couldn't know why she put so much distance between them, why even her parents told her it was better that way when she expressed her concerns.

She could not imagine.

.

It was the second time. When she took the keys Granny offered her to one of the rooms, when she turned around and saw the blue eyes and jet hair again.

That time the moment their eyes connected felt endless.

Emma didn't know what was happening to her – she didn't yearn for heaven's sake! She could control her legs to stop shaking, but she had no control over how her stomach twisted inside her.

It was that time she could learn. Her name was Ruby.

Ruby, blue eyes and long black hair. Ruby, beautiful smile and long killer legs. Ruby, sharp eye-liner and red lips.

Emma felt the need to know how that lipstick tasted. But she just smiled – _play cool, Emma, be smooth_ – and gave her name as response instead.

 _I know you._

.

.

.

When Their Majesties were so kind with a lost girl to don't care she was a werewolf and still offer her a place in their castle, give her a home, give her a name – you got to learn your place.

Keep the red hook that kind woman called Granny made to you; stick to your duties at the kitchens; be respectful and loyal to your Queen and King; keep your distance from the princess – no matter how nice and fun she seemed to be, no matter you never had a girl who wanted to hungrily to be your friend.

Through the years, Red reiterated this to herself and added a new rule, _don't fall in love with the princess – no matter how perfect and beautiful she is – how out of reach, don't dream that far._

But it was so damn difficult when the princess was determined to become your friend. _The friend of a maid! The friend of a werewolf – Everybody in the castle already knows that! How can she still want –?_

But she wanted, she wanted so badly as Red. And Red couldn't resist anymore.

Becoming friends was their choice.

The woods became their place. The full moon nights inside her quarters were their secret. The fields of roses were their balls. No matter whom, no matter the what.

Falling in love was not.

Exploring each other's lips, each other's bodies, each other's hearts – each other's sheets – was a choice too. The most fucking perfect choice Red have ever made – she didn't care about anyone else than her, her princess, her friend, her lover.

The fact that Emma didn't seem to care about anyone else either was the final thing Red needed to go through the phase of balls and suitor without giving a damn – not when all those fools fought for the princess' hand and at the end of the night they couldn't possibly imagine Her Highness was entangled in her sheets with the help. _With a girl! Such depravity!_

The only time she could feel threatened was when they received the visit from Arendelle. The princesses were kind, good people (Their Majesties not so much), the kind of people Emma liked to personally greet. Princess Elsa – soon to be queen, _a queen!_ – soon connected with Emma, they soon became friends. If could have made Red jealous if Elsa hadn't been so _nice_ and impossible to hate.

The three of them and Anna were one during their stay in Misthaven. Nothing changed between Emma and her. Not even when she confessed her initial fears and the princess just answered with a "You're so dumb and cute! I could kiss you right now!"

She kissed her. She more than kissed her actually.

But her wolf side came to show, and she was possessive that way. She loved to be the one who gave Emma – Emma, her Emma, not a damn title – everything she wanted, the pleasure she longed for, the sweetest noises she had ever heard, the noises all those princes would never hear.

She loved her. She wanted to tell her. She didn't know how – didn't have the courage to do it.

With every ball that passed, with every full moon night left behind, with every clash of their skins with each other – she thought _maybe this is the time, this time I'll tell her, this time she'll know._

 _Maybe she laughs. Maybe she doesn't feel that way. Maybe this is just occasional until the perfect suitor appears._

 _Maybe she's scared too. Maybe I have to take that first step. Maybe I have to be the brave one this time._

When years kept passing and the princess always managed to came with excuses of why she never found the perfect royal suitor to marry to her parents (very convincing, really, after what prince – _ha_ – Baelfire did to her), Red convinced herself to finally be determined and be the brave one.

Royalty hadn't been better for her princess than what she could be.

She loved her. She loved little Henry. Emma loved them. If people weren't fine with it, screw them. Not even her loyalty for the Queen and what could she think about them – Emma didn't care about that anyway – was bigger than her love for the princess.

Next time, when they both met on their field, she would tell her.

But she never got the chance.

.

"We can't."

"I don't care."

All her thoughts about how would those lips feel on hers weren't up to the real thing – to her whine of surprise, quickly converted into something else.

Emma Swan was a marvel, she knew it from the first moment she saw her entering at Granny's, from the first moment they exchanged looks and she felt lost on her green eyes. Who would've imagined she was so cliché?

 _I know her,_ was the first thing it came to her mind.

Every day she expected to see her coming through the dinner's entrance. She never told her – nor she ever would – but she always had her cup of cocoa already prepared, for her complete delight of watching her drink the cinnamon and how her lips always got soaked of it, how she always got a cute moustache of cream.

Ruby was not a romantic, and she's always been the bold type, but she still found herself walking on eggshells around Emma all those months.

It hadn't been much time they met, but she already knew her – she saw how she kept people at arm's length. Ruby didn't want to be into that group (although, she didn't take it personal at first when that broken woman kept even her son at arm's length). So she thought about playing cool and accepting a role as her friend. Girls' nights out, drinks, chatting, support, one night stands –

Her brain had stopped at that last thought the first night they went out along Mary Margaret. The feeling of possession took her over when she saw a dude approached a very drunk Emma – she groaned, she almost howled at him to get the fuck away.

She'd told herself she did that because _hey!_ Emma was her friend and she couldn't let some random fuckboy to take advantage of her. But when she decided to stay sober the whole night – _the whole night!_ – to watch over Emma's safety, to hold her on her chest when both of them fell into one couch and the blonde was drunk and drowsy… Mary Margaret knew – Ruby knew how fucked-up she was.

And finally she was doing what she had wanted to do so eagerly that night but didn't because she wasn't that kind of human being, forcing herself in people who didn't want her.

But she stopped denying the true time ago and Emma seemed as eager as her while she moaned under the touch of her fingers caressing her clit.

Emma hoisted herself over the bar. Double-checked all curtains were down and dinner were closed, so she took of his pants and spread her legs for Ruby, who didn't waste time and reached her thighs to squeeze them with her crimson nails.

Emma's hands went right to her shirt buttons, opening them one by one – and the image of Emma Swan with her legs spread to her and taking her time to _seduce_ her was the fucking hottest thing she ever saw. She reached for her tank top to throw it far at one of the tables and her bra was undid before Emma finished unbutton her waitress shirt.

Ruby felt her going wetter under her fingers as she realized she had no bra under that shirt. And her mouth around her nipple was almost enough to undo her.

.

.

.

As she tasted her, as she felt her, as they both messed around the sheets in her bed, careful of not making much noise to not be heard by anyone – well, maybe not so careful as their giggles filled the room… Emma could see.

Perhaps it was the most awkward moment for her mind to wander, but it came to her like a vision. Nights of balls, of dances, of lights – suitors everyway, as a hand grabbed hers out of the hall. Nights of passion in the dark, secret love, sweet misery. Nights of full moon, a red riding hood between her fingers, howls of a wolf into the woods. Afternoons of braids, of plays at the kitchen, of mud in the cheeks of those two girls – things that Emma never knew, – a childhood with friends.

Ruby must have realized something was wrong as she stopped moving inside her.

"Are you okay?"

Her blue eyes went right through her. She knew those eyes – No, she didn't, she could not possibly – But there she was, how could she convince herself of that being a one-time thing when she lost herself on those eyes, when those eyes made her want things she never had?

She freaked out.

She did what she knew better: run.

.

It didn't make any less awkward that every time she met her at Granny's some blurred images struck her so hard she ended with a headache.

She always told Henry she would wait for him outside while she took some fresh air.

But it wasn't enough to make the guards and screams disappear from her mind.

.

She trusted her. Even if Ruby didn't trust herself, she knew all the things she was capable of.

Going with her into the woods following her hunch was inevitable. But all those fucking images and noises coming into her head made it terrible for her to endure.

Nights of full moon, a red riding hood between her fingers, howls of a wolf.

 _I know – I know I know you._

 _Once in a dream – we used to walk around those forests._

 _And now, here we are again._

"Emma? Are you okay?"

 _You were going to say it – for the first time – and I was going to return your feelings, but I never got to our field._

"Emma?"

 _I was trapped – as I am now._

 _._

After Henry opened his eyes, she really knew.

 _It was my twentieth birthday, I ran to get to her, to keep her safe if I couldn't save anyone else. I never made it. The screams inside the castle, my parents, the guards, the fight – the Evil Queen._

"Mum?"

Those words as her son – _she found him!_ – being alive made the still happiest moment of her life. She kissed him again, and she was never going to lose him (again).

.

She was right in her arms while the town seemed to fall apart around them.

"You came to me," Red said – moved, touched, emotional – all those cheesy adjectives to describe a moment like that, a moment interrupted so long ago.

"It took me eight years, but I finally did it." How hard it was trying to hold the tears back?

"I knew you would." Red – Ruby – whoever – kissed her. In the middle of the street, with everybody watching them, and she didn't care – never cared, actually – as she kissed back.

She lost herself in that kiss – oh, how much had she missed her! – and she would've stayed that way all the day if she wouldn't have so many things to fix – after all, she was a freaking Savior.

Emma broke away to take some air, and said, "So… What was what you wanted to tell me before I go back to restore the magic for this place?"

"People are watching us."

"I don't care."

Ruby – Red – whoever – kissed her again and she didn't need words for her feelings when she was holding her for dear life. She felt the same way.

 _You'll love me the way you did –_

 _Once, back then in our dream._


End file.
